FIELDS OF RESEARCH

The research staff of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences includes scientists specializing in a broad diversity of biological, paleontological, geological and astronomical fields. Museum-based research projects have local, regional, national, and international scopes and add to our understanding and explanation of the natural world.

The Genomics and Microbiology unit uses cutting-edge genomic technologies to explore the microscopic world of DNA inside a diversity of species from primates to planthopper insects, and the microbes associated with them.

The Herpetology unit conducts collections- and field-based research on the diversity, distributions, natural history, evolutionary relationships, and conservation of amphibians and reptiles in North Carolina and around the world.

Why are fishes so diverse? From the sunfish and gars of North Carolina, to the enigmatic species of Antarctica and the deep-sea, our staff investigate the factors that have generated and continue to maintain this amazing biodiversity using an integrative approach that combines field, laboratory, and collections based research.

Non-molluscan Invertebrate Zoology encompasses active research being undertaken by several Units and Laboratories throughout the Museum. Topics and fields of study vary widely, and include astacology, entomology, and paleontology.

The Paleontology unit staff's research spans the evolution of vertebrate and invertebrate life across the last 550 million years and requires a multitude of biological and geological techniques including scanning electron microscopy, immunohistochemistry, phylogenetics, advanced three-dimensional visualization, comparative gross anatomy and histology.